Home form can saves Stags says coach Micky Moore

John Lomas

Mansfield Town first team coach Micky Moore said Stags can stay up if they can capitalise on their decent home form as they prepare for two crunch games in four days at One Call Stadium.

Northampton visit on Saturday with Luton in town on Tuesday, and Moore believes another 21 points from the last 17 games could be enough to stay in the League.

He said: “It is a big four days for us with Northampton and Luton at home. Our home form is going to be paramount now we are in the last 17 games.

“Our home form has not been too bad in all honesty. We just need to look after our own. We have six games in February, four at home, we have looked at them and we have a minimum points requirement. We are doing that for each month.

“Last season Bristol Rovers were relegated with 51 points on goal difference, the year before Barnet went down with 51 points on goal difference. I think if we can get 52 to 54 points we will be safe. But you never know as you get freak years.”

He added: “Everyone seems to be beating everybody. On Tuesday York drew at Luton, having been 2-0 up and a man sent off.

“Northampton are in form and have won five of their last six, though they lost to Hartlepool on Tuesday. That was down to an individual error when their centre half tried to get the ball back to his keeper and it was intercepted.

“Otherwise they’ve been in good form and are just outside the play-offs. They have ambitions of getting in there. We are aware of the threats they cause and we will work on them up until the game.”

After a fine 1-0 home win over Stevenage last weekend, Stags flopped 2-1 at Morecambe on Tuesday night and Moore said: “There was a lot of frustration in the changing room on Tuesday night. Between the two 18-yard boxes we didn’t feel we had played that bad.

“We have got to stay on the process we are on. We believe we are largely playing well, but need to tweak things. We need to turn performances into results.

“After the good result on Saturday we went into Tuesday’s game with a lot of confidence.

“At 2-1 down, the second half was the story of our season as the lads created a lot of chances but just couldn’t finish them. We are not clinical enough. The fact we’ve only scored 24 goals all season tells its own story.

“We did a lot of work on Monday with the lads and they knew what was coming, But they just switched off for one small second. We are doing that at vital times and getting punished, yet when other teams switch off against us we are not capitalising on it.”